A chance encounter an officer had with a Ceres man wanted on a felony warrant to stand charges for auto theft netted the suspect’s arrest on Friday evening.

At 9:28 p.m., Officer Eric Souza was patrolling the Hatch Road shopping district in the 1600 block of Hatch Road when he spotted Alfredo Gonzalez Figueroa, 56, walking in front of stores and recognized him as being wanted on a felony arrest warrant. Officer Souza stopped Figueroa and arrested him.

Figueroa was booked into the Stanislaus County Public Safety Center.